Ride hailing company Uber wants to launch flying car test flights by 2020 - and the company's new research centre could see it develop fully autonomous flying taxis in Europe
UBER have launched a new research centre dedicated to the development of flying cars.
The ride hailing company have committed £17.5million to the Paris-based facility in the hope it will get their vehicles in the air by 2020.
Part of their "Uber Elevate" program, the centre in the French capital is the next step towards its goal of launching the world's first fleet of affordable flying taxis.
Uber has said it will have demonstration flights ready within the next two years - and plans on launching their full network by 2023.
The Advanced Technology Centre Paris (ATCP) will develop autonomous flying cars that are purely powered by electricity.
But according to reports, initial models will require a pilot.
The 200mph flying cars will use helicopter-style rotors to take off and land vertically, but use fixed wings over longer distances.
The company claim their service will be cheaper and faster than existing taxi services, addressing growing congestion fears in capital cities.
Uber said in a statement: "ATCP will be Uber’s first research and development hub outside of North America. Over the next five years, we’ll be investing €20 million into developing new technologies and capabilities to move our vision forward.
"This begins with building artificial intelligence and airspace management systems to support uberAIR at scale, which will be key to achieving our goal of demonstration flights in Dallas, Los Angeles, and a third, international city by 2020.
"France is a perfect home for our next step forward with its strong history of research and development, world-class engineers and a unique role in aviation worldwide."
